From May 2021 until May 2023, the VCI-Roadmap was revised in a large-scale stakeholder project, “Chemistry4Climate” with around 80 stakeholders – inside and outside the Chemical Industry. The project assumes that Germany’s climate neutral chemical industry 2045 will be producing basic chemicals with a negative growth rate of 0.5 % p.a. and speciality chemicals with a moderate increase of 1.1 % p.a.. 

Chemistry4Climate developed three scenarios, 1. maximum used of directly electrified processes, 2. maximum use of hydrogen (as feedstock as well as in high temperature processes), 3. maximum use of recycling potential and sustainable biomass, in which the respective technology was used at a maximum level respectively. The actual pathway will lie somewhere in between. Germany’s chemicals production will need large amounts of energy from renewable sources (up to 508 TWh), eight times the amount of hydrogen (up to 283 TWh) used today, carbon dioxide as a feedstock (up to 52 mil. T p.a.) by usage of carbon capture and utilization (CCU), a ramp up in mechanical recycling (up to 3.1 mil. T p.a.), supplemented by chemical recycling (up to 2.2 mil. T p.a.) as well as the use of biomass (up to 26.5 mil. T p.a.) not only as an energy source but also as feedstock .